2005 Singles, Pt. 4

Andrew Bird-Fake Palindromes
Ok, ok, I like Andrew Bird. His songs are well-written, his lyrics are some of the best out there, and he can whistle. Why don't I love him? I couldn't tell you; maybe it's the same reason I don't even really like Sufjan, despite repeated listens. Maybe I have an aversion to sensitive bookish indie-pop singer/songwriters. That would explain the Decemberists, too. Nevertheless, I do love this song, it's beautiful, fun, intelligent, etc. When I went to Intonation, I almost bumped into Andrew Bird. It's a good thing I didn't, because I might have broken him; the man needs to eat. I wasn't a big enough fan to brave the heat and stand in the sun, but I did sit back in the shade and enjoy his show. That's how I feel about this song; it's the gleam of greatness that I can appreciate from an artist that I don't connect with so much.

OK Go-Oh Lately it's so Quiet
I really don't like OK Go at all; I disliked the first album and I think the new one is worse. The only reason I ever heard this album track is because I knew the album needed to go on the radio and I was checking for singles. Nevertheless, this song blew me away then, and it still does now; that sexy falsetto is wonderful. The lyrics are great, too, and vivid, something I wouldn't expect from almost any sexy song, let alone an OK Go one. This song serves as an excellent personal reminder that even bad bands can make great songs, and that even bad albums can have great songs. I'm glad I caught this one, especially since other people with similar tastes as mine probably wouldn't have. This song will make appearances on mixtapes for years to come, I imagine.

Devendra Banhart-Chinese Children
Banhart songs never fail to puzzle me with their lyrics, and this one is no exception. The difference here is, though, that this is perhaps the catchiest song he has written, which gives me a lot more time to puzzle over it. Combine that with my studying Chinese nonstop at school, and you've got a Michael hit. Are all children Chinese children? Is Devendra wanting to adopt? Is he ridiculing the banality of nation seperation? Is he just talking nonsense? Whatever it is, I'm glad ol' Devendra went with this combination of tune and content; it made for one of the better songs I heard this year.

Spoon-I Turn My Camera On
Perfect falsetto, fun, intelligent, grows with repeat listens. You all know this song, and I don't have anything new to say about it.

Junior Senior-Can I Get Get Get
It's almost impossible for me to pick one song from this album to include here, but at least one is necessary. The difficulty is that at one point just about every song on this album has been my favorite song; it's one of those albums. I chose this one because it's so dancey, and that seems to be one of the general themes for my favorite singles of the year. 2005 musically was, with a few exceptions, a year where people could get back to being goofy, could stop being serious. Of course Wolf Parade and Okkervil River don't exactly fit that mold, but Franz Ferdinand, the Fiery Furnaces, Gorillaz, Jamie Lidell, etc, all decided to have fun this year, and we all had fun with them. The epitome of this is Junior Senior, and the epitome within their album is "Can I Get Get Get." Just before the wonderful chorus, there is a back and forth between Senior and a female; she keeps repeating "I don't do that kind of thing," and he responds each time. Right before the chorus, Senior's response is "Let's go!"; he knows that she is going to follow his suit and have a good time. Whatever you might feel about goofy dance music, this song is as ambivalently irresistable as Senior's beckoning
within it.

The Cribs-Hey Scenesters!
All of a sudden it's become really cool for hipster musicians to make fun of hipster fans (see "Playboy," Art Brut, LCD Soundsystem). I like it now, although I could see myself getting really sick of it soon. Nevertheless, this otherwise mediocre garage rock band does the same thing on a less cool level, instead attacking more of a British mag-reading Strokes-listening scenester (as ooposed to a pitchfork-reading, animalcollective-listening hipster). Although I am friends with people closer to this second indie kid, and am probably more like him now, I grew up in high school more like the first. I am still a sucker for mediocre garage rock bands like this one, and I love that this band's best song is calling me out on it. It only makes me love it more; now back to hiding those Mooney Suzuki CDs.

Jason Forrest-War Photographer
Wow, a better single than anything from the last fantastic album. How can this be? How can this be? Neat video, too, although it's no "Stepping Off."

Wolf Parade-Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
Yes, this is my favorite Wolf Parade song; make what you will of that. I think that Wolf Parade sound best when they sound like their name: a parade of wolves. The group certainly howls and almost marches throughout the song, and the lyrics back them up: haunting indeed. The vocals come out like barks, and I can almost feel the breath coming out of the speakers. All the bloggers love "I'll believe in Anything" becuase of its desperation, I think, and I appreciate this, but somehow this song sounds more desperate to me. Also, I like the album version much much more than the EP version; I never liked the song much before the album.

Broken Social Scene-7/4 (Shoreline)
It's hard for me to put into words how much I love the song. I'm pretty sure I first heard it live at Intonation, although now that I think of it I may have just placed that in my memory; I know that BSS played something new there. I downloaded the finished version as soon as it leaked, and it was done; I was in love. I even went back and listened to the unedited version, and even loved that one (I don't know what Pitchfork was thinking). Then, once I heard the album, the song meant so much more to me; it's more like a movement in the symphony that is the first half of BSS. Motifs and sounds barely appear in the song that show up later in the album. Lyrics make more emotional sense. I'm not going to say make more sense, because that would make the song seem a bit too clear; this song, like the album, is a messy affair, one could almost say muddled. But that's what's great about it; it's expansive, it's all over the place, it's beautiful. This is certainly in my top 5 singles of the year, and probably top 3.